


Backdoors

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Veronica Mars (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-22
Updated: 2004-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-25 07:01:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1637894
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mac discovers a mysterious program on Veronica's laptop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Backdoors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Seanan

 

 

"God DAMN it!"  
  
Veronica sat up on her bed, putting the book she'd been reading on her bedside table. "Crashed again?"  
  
"Yeah," said Mac with a sigh, running her hands through her hair. She glared at the Powerbook's screen, but it remained obstinately unchanging. "Third time in the last hour. Makes it kinda hard to find the problem."  
  
"Makes it even harder to get any work done. Trust me. You haven't learned anything at all?"  
  
Mac reached for the power button on the laptop. "Well, I know it's something low-level, not a crash with your email program or Photoshop or whatever. And I know it's not any known virus. Not that there _are_ many for Macs. I suppose it might be a hardware problem."  
  
Veronica groaned. "I hope not. My warranty ran out last month. I _really_ don't want to spend my last three months' income helping Apple return from the dead. Again."  
  
The computer had started its reboot cycle, diagnostic text scrolling down the screen faster than the eye could follow. "There're a couple of things I can still check." She pressed a series of keys that started the computer in text only mode. Her ensuing actions were definitely not described in the manual - Veronica quickly stopped trying to watch.  
  
But she didn't start reading again, either, watching the other girl's face instead. She was almost glad her computer was broken - it had given her an excuse to call. Mac was the best prospect for a female friend Veronica had met in months. She seemed trustworthy (though hardly an angel), amusing, and, most importantly, completely unafraid of Veronica and her associated social leprosy. All three rather rare qualities. Unfortunately, Veronica wasn't very good at making friends these days, and so Mac had remained no more than a theoretical friend prospect for months. But then the computer crashes had gotten completely out of hand.  
  
"Huh. That's odd." Mac hunched her eyebrows at the screen, interrupting Veronica's musings.   
  
"Got something?"  
  
"I'm not sure. This program... it's bigger than it should be.."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"It's a disk caching daemon. It talks to your RAM and moves data to your hard disk if necessary. Very low-level program. Tell me, have you noticed your computer making noises a lot lately? More than it used to?"  
  
"What kind of noises are we talking about? Clicks, beeps, whirs?"  
  
"Um, whirs interspersed with clicks. Like 'click-click-whiiiiiiiiir-click.'" She broke off, embarrassed. "You get the idea."  
  
"Yes, I think I do," said Veronica, doing her absolute best not to laugh at the other girl. "I actually _have_ noticed that sound a lot, recently. Usually when I was working in Word. I just blamed it on Microsoft."  
  
Mac smiled. "Not a bad assumption, generally. Still..." Her face turned serious. "Listen, if you weren't who you are, I'd never think of this. It still seems pretty unlikely. But one thing this program _could_ be modified to do is monitor keystrokes and store them on your drive. Then a different program could, later, send them over the internet to, well, whoever wrote the program."  
  
Veronica felt a chill creeping down her neck. They _couldn't_ have... could they? But she knew better. The Kane Software head of security had taken surveillance photos of her more than a year ago. Someone in that company had put targets on her head, run her mother out of town, and possibly covered up the truth about her best friend's murder. They had shown themselves capable of anything, and she knew they were interested in her. She had no reason to doubt they would bug her computer, or that they had the ability. "Assume for the moment that I _am_ being bugged. What do I do to fix it?"  
  
Mac stared at her, clearly wanting to ask who Veronica suspected, but she resisted the temptation. "I'd recommend a complete wipe and reinstallation. I can't guarantee that this one program is the only danger - the only way to be sure of your safety is to get rid of everything. You should back up your documents and photos and stuff, of course."  
  
"They're all backed up already. My life revolves around my paranoia. All right, let's do it."  
  
Mac nodded and immediately set to work.  
  
Veronica contemplated. If it had been in there for more than a few weeks, as seemed pretty likely, then the planters might have all kinds of information on her investigation into Lilly's murder, not to mention her other sensitive cases. She'd have to try to contain the damage, and fast. And, of course, prevent it from reoccuring. "So, how would a program like this get installed in the first place? I'd kind of like to not have to do this again."  
  
"Um, well, they'd need your administrative password. Assuming you don't use something easy..."  
  
"Trust me, I don't," interrupted Veronica  
  
"...then they probably got it by spying on you, watching you type it in, probably somewhere in public. A coffee shop or school or something."  
  
"There is this one coffee place where I like to work on my computer. Delicious caramel lattés, and fast wireless. Plus, the guy behind the counter is kind of cute."  
  
"Huh. We should make a visit after we're done here. Anyway, then they'd need access to the laptop. If they could spy on you without your noticing, I'm guessing they could also steal a few minutes with your baby. Once they had the bug installed, they'd never need to spy on you again, at least not computer-wise, because all password changes would be picked up and reported by the program. Of course, I'm still not convinced any of this actually happened - it could just be a new virus or something."  
  
"Always assume the worst. Some of my enemies are very slick. So to prevent it happening again, I'll just have to be more careful where I enter my password?"  
  
"Pretty much. I could also tell you what to watch for so that this particular bug, at least, won't get you again. Honestly, if it was a spy tool, I'm most surprised that it crashed your computer. You'd think professionals like this could make a stable program."  
  
"You would, wouldn't you? Maybe it conflicted with the new version of the OS or something. I recently upgraded. But whatever, the happy thing is that it _did_ crash."  
  
"Sure. Well, I've started the installation process. It'll take another hour or so to finish, and after that it's up to you to set everything up again. I assume you can handle it?"  
  
"I think I can _probably_ make do, yes," grinned Veronica.  
  
"Then let's go get some lattés. You gave me a craving."  
  
They headed towards to door, stopping at the entrance to put on their jackets. "There's just one more thing," said Mac, as she opened the door. She looked back at Veronica and asked, "What if they _wanted_ you to find the bug?" She didn't wait for an answer. 

 


End file.
